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Quality of Life

Longitudinal health-related quality of life outcomes and related factors after pediatric SCT

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 44, pages 249–256 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Our purpose was to investigate longitudinally health-related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes and related factors up to 2 years post-pediatric SCT. A total of 99 mothers of patients, aged 1.5–17 years, completed two standardized HRQOL questionnaires, generic and disease specific (DS), about the child, and reported on their own symptoms of depression and family function pre-SCT, 12 and 24 months post-SCT. Clinical (diagnosis, radiation), child (age) and family (maternal depression) information was also obtained. Significant improvement in physical and psychosocial HRQOL from pre-SCT to 1 or 2 years post-SCT was reported. Survivors of ALL were reported to have poorer physical and psychosocial HRQOL than survivors of solid tumors on the DS measure. Maternal depression was negatively associated with physical and psychosocial HRQOL. Maternal education (higher) at pre-SCT predicted improvements in physical domains 2 years post-SCT; mother's age (older) and child's age (younger) also predicted improvements of physical and emotional HRQOL. We conclude that survivors of pediatric SCT improved physical and psychosocial HRQOL by 1 and 2 years post-SCT. Older survivors whose mothers are younger and distressed, with lower education at SCT have compromised HRQOL compared to other survivors. This study has important implications for the care of SCT survivors and their families.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Karen Sumbler, Tara Smith and Gail Andrews for their help in collecting data for this study. This research was supported by grants from the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation, New Initiatives; Elizabeth Lue Bone Marrow Foundation and the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Psychology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    M Barrera & K Hancock

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    M Barrera

  3. Program in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    M Barrera & E Atenafu

Authors
  1. M Barrera
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  2. E Atenafu
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  3. K Hancock
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Correspondence to M Barrera.

Additional information

Part of the data in this paper was presented as a poster and published as an abstract at the 2008 IPOS conference: Barrera M, Atenafu E, Hancock, K. Quality of life after pediatric stem cell transplantation: at risk subgroups and related factors. International Psycho-Oncology Society, Madrid, Spain. Psycho-Oncology 2008, June; 6: S291. Also, pre-SCT data used in this paper were used in the following paper: Barrera M, Gee C, Andrews GS, Armstrong CA, Saunders FE. Health-related quality of life of children and adolescents prior to hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation: diagnosis and age effects. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2006, 47: 320–326.

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Barrera, M., Atenafu, E. & Hancock, K. Longitudinal health-related quality of life outcomes and related factors after pediatric SCT. Bone Marrow Transplant 44, 249–256 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.24

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